By Steve Huff 5/18 12:09am

Mysteries

One57

Mystery Buyer Pays More Than $90 Million for Penthouse at One57

Intrigue is afoot tonight as real estate sleuths are likely curious to find out who has paid at least $90 million for a 10,923-square-foot penthouse on the upper floors of One57. According to a report in the New York Times the buyer’s home country and name won’t be revealed, and neither will the precise amount paid for the unit, which is located on the 89th and 90th floors of One57. Whoever they are, they’ve topped the $88 million paid earlier this year by a trust for Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the daughter of billionaire Russian Dmitry Rybolovlev. Every square foot of the residence is apparently worth a new-ish, gently-used car: Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/10 5:14pm

Machers

The new skyline, come 2020? (sbarn/Skyscraper Page)

Gary Barnett on How He Chooses His Designers and the 1,250-Foot Starchitect Tower Planned for Broadway and 57th

When Gary Barnett builds, he wants everything to be “the best,” as the Extell exec made clear in our recent profile. Bigger is not always better, but it certainly does not hurt, especially in Manhattan. That is part of the appeal of Mr. Barnett’s One57—not only will the views be dead-center on Central Park, a fact Mr. Barnett keenly brags about, but there are also the bragging rights of having the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere. At 1,005 feet, it beats Frank Gehry’s 8 Spruce Street by more than 100 feet.

But this is New York, and the record will never hold for long, as competitors like the MoMA tower and 432 Park start to rise. But Mr. Barnett has an ace up his sleeve just down the block, a large development site on Broadway running between 57th and 58th streets. The lot, site of the former B.F. Goodrich Building is nearly twice as large as One57′s, and more importantly the tower could be many hundred feet taller, as well, as Mr. Barnett continues to assemble air rights and properties, one of his favorite parts of the business.

For this stratospheric project he also turned to several top-shelf designers, none of whom Extell has ever worked with before. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/01/11 12:40pm

Machers

Extell_Riverside_One57

Explosive Extell Demoing West 57th Tire Tower

Gary Barnett continues to bulldoze his way across the city. Just last week, his Extell Development unveiled plans for a new tower at Riverside South; found a partner for a stalled 50-story hotel near Times Square; and secured $700 million in financing from Abu Dhabi toward One57, the condo-hotel tower on West 57th Street that will be the tallest, and likely most expensive, when it is completed. As if that were not enough, the developer has begun work just down the block on another of its long-simmering projects. Read More

By Eliot Brown 10/06/09 10:16pm

Plot Twist

There’s a rule of thumb that applies to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission: The agency shouldn’t try to designate a building a landmark against its owner’s will unless the commission’s ready for a loud public skirmish. And, generally in the Bloomberg administration, the commission has steered clear of such battles, making for relatively few such Read More